In this consumer-oriented society, printed cash discount coupons serve as an advertising vehicle for sales of products in department stores, particularly grocery stores. As an incentive to consumers to purchase certain products, coupons discount purchase prices for these products. Thus, the coupons provide significant cost savings for consumers. A substantial many consumers take advantage of these cost savings by collecting and using coupons--so much so that there is a particular class of consumers who consider that there is an art to shopping with coupons.
Consumers find such coupons in mass distribution media, such as news papers and magazines. Consumers also receive coupons mass mailed to them in envelopes. In most situations, consumers do not coincidentally come upon the coupons for items on their shopping lists just as they are about to go shopping. More often a consumer comes across coupons while reading magazines, newspapers, or his or her mail and then sets the coupons aside until shopping is scheduled and selected coupons for particular items will provide shopping needs.
When using the coupons, the consumer must carry and access the coupons while shopping. This can be a particularly clumsy operation when a shopping cart must be pushed, at times with two hands. The coupons may not be conveniently laid in the cart as small pieces of paper are prone to slip through the wire sides and floor of the cart. The logistics are not substantially lessened by a planned shopping list and order of procurement to match coupons with goods; such usually matching calls for time consuming planning and does not accommodate the spontaneity that usually takes place during shopping when a substitute good may be needed or an item is suddenly discovered missing from the shopping list. Even when item and coupon are matched in the grocery store aisle, they must be matched again at the check-out counter, and when this is done, even by a cashier, it causes more time consuming delay.